Multivitamins & Minerals

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Best Product

Healthspan
Value for money
Quality 5

Superdrug
Value for money
Quality 5

Sainsbury's
Value for money
Quality 5

Complete A-Z
Overall rating
Quality 5

Boots
Value for money
Quality 5

Centural A-Z
Overall rating
Quality 4

Goldshield
Value for money
RATING:Rating

Complete
Overall rating
Quality 5

Tesco
Value for money
Quality 5

Lloyds pharmacy
Value for money
RATING:Rating

A-Z Multivitamins
Overall rating
Quality 5

Asda
Value for money
Quality 5

A-Z Gold
Overall rating
Quality 4

Sanatogen
Value for money
RATING:Rating


Worth A Look

Pharmaton
Overall rating
Quality 3

Boehringer Ingelheim
Value for money
Quality 2

Complete from A to Zinc
Overall rating
RATING:Rating

Centrum
Value for money
RATING:Rating


This Pharmaton product (Boehringer Ingelheim) is worth a look, as it is a licensed medicine for the relief of fatigue. However, it would not receive this award when judged as a multivitamin & mineral supplement.
 
 
The SC Quality Benchmark for basic multivitamin and mineral products
 
The product should supply:
 
1) 100% RDA of all essential vitamins for which RDA values have been set
2) 100% RDA values for the trace minerals iodine, zinc and iron.
3) A minimum of 20% RDA value of calcium and magnesium
4) The other minerals Copper, Selenium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Chromium, Phosphorus and Potassium.
5) The above in a one-a-day tablet form to promote long term compliance.

Basic multivitamin and mineral products are the most popular type of supplement in the UK. The aim of these products is to provide a basic foundation of all essential vitamins and minerals, typically required at 100% RDA to ensure efficient functioning of the body.

While good basic multivitamin and mineral products usually provide 100% RDA of all 12 essential vitamins in addition to the three trace minerals, they rarely provide 100% RDA of the minerals Calcium and Magnesium. This is because the volume of these minerals required to reach the 100% RDA target would require consumption of at least 3-4 tablets per day. As such, it is important that the intake of these minerals is made up for by dietary intake.

Some nutritionists believe that additional benefits are obtained by taking significantly higher than 100% RDA levels of vitamins, though this is a controversial viewpoint. These high potency multivitamins and minerals are reviewed in a separate section.

Quality

Of the 14 products in this category, 9 met all aspects of the quality criteria as set out above. These were the products from Asda, Lloyds, Tesco, Sanatogen, Goldshield, Boots, Sainsburys, Superdrug and Healthspan. Any of these products would be likely to deliver the expected benefits of intake of a broad spectrum multivitamin and mineral. Furthermore, because these products all have an almost identical specification, it is impossible to separate them in terms of quality.

Value

All of the 9 products meeting the quality criteria were good value, with the amount paid per 100% RDA tablet ranging from £0.03 to £0.08. The best value products were those from Tesco and Sainsburys, but with these 9 very similar products it would pay to shop around for the best deal.

Worth a Look: Centrum Complete from A to Zinc (Centrum)

This product just missed the main criteria by only providing 50% RDA Zinc, but it does provide Lutein to help support visual function.

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